WINDHOEK (Reuter) - Leaders of 10 southern African states signed a treaty yesterday creating a development community to defuse the threat of economic competition from a powerful post-apartheid South Africa.

The Treaty of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) was signed during a summit in Namibia by leaders from Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

'It is time to reduce the areas of conflict and maximise the areas of co-operation,' said the Tanzanian President, Ali Hassan Mwinyi. The African National Congress secretary general, Cyril Ramaphosa, said the ANC would support the SADC.